Race to succeed Cory Gardner in the 4th Congressional District gets more crowded

The decision by U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner to run for the Senate instead of re-election has set off a scramble for his seat. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

The list of GOP candidates scrambling to fill U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner’s soon-to-be vacant congressional seat is growing, with two more candidates announcing Monday they’re in.

Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer and Larimer County resident Steve Laffey join state Sen. Scott Renfoe and District Attorney Ken Buck, both of Weld County, who announced last week they’re seeking the GOP nomination in the 4th. State Reps. Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch and Tim Dore of Elizabeth also are looking at the race.

The winner of the June 24 primary faces Democrat Vic Meyers of Trinidad.

“I got into this race because we the people of the 4th CD weren’t being represented in Congress. Gardner dropping out doesn’t change anything,” Meyers said. “Replacing him with another Tea Party radical doesn’t change anything and won’t get us representation.”

But he faces a tough fight, as the 4th District, which includes the eastern plains and a portion of Douglas County, is overwhelmingly Republican.

“We are the only county in the state to have no long-term debt, no short-term debt, no county sales tax, give a TABOR refund by reducing the mill levy … year after year and we have close to $100 million in contingency reserves,” she said in an e-mail. “I want to take the Weld County model to Washington.”

Laffey lives outside of the 4th Congressional District because his ranch was cut out during the redistricting in 2011, but he said that he, his wife and six kids “live only about three miles as the crow flies from the 4th district line.” And he said he share’s the 4th District’s values of maintaining water rights, property rights and small government.

McNulty also lives outside the 4th, in the 6th Congressional District represented by Republican Mike Coffman.

But there is no constitutional requirement to live in the district to run for Congress. Republican Lang Sias of Arvada lived just outside the 7th District when he ran in 2010 to try to unseat Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter of Golden.

This is why the Republicans (GOP: Party of Hate®) have clown cars on standby rental.

Agamemnon7

smoke em up davey dude

GenePH

Lynn Bartels wrote a column about Cory Gardner’s logo. I remarked it was a column about nothing. . “Or how to write an article about nothing. Nothing but giving the left the opportunity to use the word “hate.” One commenter had made a comment similar to that by Minnie Mouse below.

By contrast, this column has information, meat on it’s bones, yet all this unimaginative lefty can do is utter that “hate’ word, not even in context to anything in the column. Funny.

RobertChase

“… a race last year he declined to pursue” — how awkward! Try: “… a race he declined to pursue last year”

Colin Kraus

Some people have a short memory, but the 4th congressional district was once held by D Betsy Markey. Before Cory Gardner road in on the tidal wave of populist tea party rhetoric in 2010 the district was held by a blue dog democrat. Cory Gardner made a lot of promises, but got to Washington and promoted the agenda of his corporate campaign backers. He has exited the congressional race thinking his Affordable Care Act attacks will help him unseat Senator Mark Udall. In his place the new R Ken Buck has the same mantra with the same corporate campaign backing. When voters reflect on the promises made by populist tea party rhetoric, they will choose to support Vic Meyers, not the lies of corporate financed politicians.

Ben B

Why was there NO mention of the Unaffiliated Candidate? This is why the system is broken. If you do not belong to the two major parties you are ignored by the press. Let’s get the word out to citizens that they have more of a choice then Red and Blue! A candidate that stands for people and not parties! Mr. Johnson fails to mention GRANT DOHERTY running for this seat. Please include all facts to articles.

RobertChase

Certainly the DP should cover all the candidates. Candidates do, in general, represent their parties. Mr. Dougherty may be unaffiliated, but his campaign rhetoric looks like Fascist (Republican) ideology to me — his site lists exactly three issues of public concern: Energy (give it away to extractors), the National Debt (attributed to those ever-popular “governmental inefficiencies”), and the Second Amendment (you know, the Constitution has one Amendment, and it is under threat — fascists are absolutely consistent in having no concern for the abrogation of the rest of the Bill of Rights by the past two traitors we elected President). This moron only offers more of the same lies that we get out of the Fascist Party!

Ben B

WOW, that’s amazing how you ended with such a polarizing position so quickly… I am a Dem and I did not see that in his site or talking with him. You might want to gather or exchange more information before coming to a strong conclusion?
I wish you all the best.

RobertChase

Just click on “Issues” there and you will see exactly what I did: Energy, the National Debt, and the Second (only) Amendment — I’ll stand by my gloss of his stand on those issues. We need political parties that represent the interests of the American People, and viable candidates representing them — the two criminal politcal organizations that turned the United States, the supposed “land of the free” into the world’s leading jailer and whose members in government have since 9/11 engaged in what amounts to a coup against our Constitution should be eliminated, and their members re-educated, deported, or executed. All enemies of American Liberty, beware!

RobertChase

“Site Undergoing Updates And Maintenance.

CHECK BACK LATER”

RobertChase

Asking for coverage for your candidate makes sense, but the context of this article is the primary election — for Fascists (Republicans); no Collaborationist (Democrat) across the State faces a primary challenge, and primaries are not held for the benefit of any other party (or for unaffiliated candidates). Your and Ben’s insistence that the DP “discuss all candidates” will make sense after June, but it makes no sense to talk about Dougherty in the context of the Fascist primary — except that, since his platform appears to be that of the Tea Party, he really should be together with the other Fascist candidates.

RobertChase

Do all two of you Dougherty supporters grasp the fact that his platform will have exactly no appeal to progressive voters whatsoever? That may not be a problem in the benighted Fourth Congressional District, but you also face an impossible task in running an unaffiliated candidate who sounds just like the Fascist he is trying to replace.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.